Mon, 30 October 2023
Today we are talking about Commerce Kickstart, Commerce in General, and What’s new at Centarro with guest Ryan Szrama. We’ll also cover Navigation as our module of the week. For show notes visit:
www.talkingDrupal.com/422 Topics - High level overview of commerce kickstart
- Is it a distribution
- Will it move to recipes
- Why use commerce directly over kickstart
- Does kickstart lend itself to a specific type of site
- Compare with Shopify
- Do you ever recommend Shopify
- Are there additional conditions or events being added
- Can people contribute to kickstart
- What is Centarro focused on now
- What is the state of headless
Resources Guests Ryan Szarma - ryanszrama.com rszrama Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Mark Casias - kanopi.com - markie MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - @mandclu
Navigation - Brief description:
- Would you like to try out and give feedback on a proposed overhaul to how Drupal’s administration menu works? There’s a module for that.
- Brief history
- How old: project created in 2004, but the namespace was taken over earlier this year as a place to work on the proposed new navigation in the contrib space
- Versions available: No releases yet, so you need to clone the repo into your custom modules
- Maintainership
- Very active development, commits in the past day
- Number of open issues:
- Usage stats:
- Officially 1 site is using it, but not recommended for production anyway
- Maintainer(s):
- Include Christina Chumillas, Sascha Eggenberger, Lauri Eskola, Mike Herschel, and more
- Module features and usage
- At this point, really a prototype, trying to define what the user experience should be
- Worth noting that the latest release for the Gin admin theme also includes this new updated navigation as an experimental feature that can be updated, but still best to leave feedback on the Navigation project
- The main idea is that instead of having dropdowns that fly out for deeper level menu items, the navigation is in a sidebar, with menu items that expand to reveal child items when clicked
- It’s worth noting that dropdown menus with multiple levels handled in flyouts are a known usability pain point, and are often cited by industry experts like Jakob Neilsen as something to avoid
- There are still some usability issues to be thought through with this approach, for example there is no longer a way to reach the top page of a section or subsection, because clicking on the link shows or hides the child items instead
- This was a subject of some very active discussions at DrupalCon Europe last week, so I thought it would be good to cover this week, so our listeners can add their voices
Direct download: td-422-libsyn.mp3
Category: general
-- posted at: 2:00pm EDT
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Mon, 23 October 2023
Today we are talking about The Future of Drupal article, What Challenges Drupal may have, and How we can overcome them together! with guest Ricardo Marcelino. For show notes visit:
www.talkingDrupal.com/421 Topics - Can you describe the article this topic is based on
- Module percentages
- Drupal’s challenges
- Drupal’s unique selling proposition
- How can Drupal expand relevance
- Why is relevance important
- How does Drupal move forward
- What’s next for Drupal
- Do you think this is a natural change for a project like Drupal
- How do we ensure the future of Drupal
Resources Guests Ricardo Marcelino - omibee.com rfmarcelino Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Mark Casias - kanopi.com - markie MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - @mandclu
(Next.js)[https://www.drupal.org/project/next] - Brief description:
- Have you ever wanted to build a website with a React-based front end, but with lots of the robust and mature CMS capabilities that Drupal provides? There’s a module for that.
- Brief history
- How old: created in Jan 2021 by shadcn, who continues to support it, including in the #nextjs channel in Drupal slack
- Versions available:
- Maintainership
- Actively maintained, though it uses a Github repo as its place for collaboration, including issues
- Number of open issues:
- 135 open, 12 of them bugs
- Test coverage? Y
- Usage stats:
- Maintainer(s):
- shadcdn, who continues to support it, including in the #nextjs channel in Drupal slack
- Module features and usage:
- For anyone not familiar with Next.js, it’s a React framework for building front-end applications that gives developers a number a number of useful capabilities, such as dynamic routing, performance optimizations, integrations, and more
- The Next.js module for Drupal optimizes your Drupal backend for use as the content repository for a Next.js front end
- It add functionality like headless preview of unpublished content, even across multiple front end apps
- It also supports Incremental Site Regeneration, a best practice to ensure your front end site can serve static pages for the fastest possible delivery, but without the risk of serving stale content
- Works with the JSON:API Menu Items and JSON:API Views Drupal modules to allow even more of your front end site to be managed within your Drupal backend
- There’s even a Next.js Webform module that allows your Drupal site builder to create webforms, and have the React forms automatically created
- There is also a specialized version of Next.js, a “next-drupal-basic-starter”, also maintained by shadcn, that helps to get your Next.js front end working with Drupal more quickly
Direct download: td-421-libsyn.mp3
Category: general
-- posted at: 2:00pm EDT
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Mon, 16 October 2023
Today we are talking about Same Page Preview, Why it’s needed, and When it might land in Drupal Core with our guest Chris Weber. We’ll also cover Type Tray as our module of the week. For show notes visit:
www.talkingDrupal.com/420 Topics - Origin story
- What does same page preview do
- Who maintains the module
- Current state
- How does the module handle smaller screens
- Performance
- Caching concerns
- Core inclusion
- Roadmap
- How can people get involved
- Listener Question: Stephen 10+ years ago, I recall connecting to Drupal Coffee on Google+ hosted by you, this is when we started Talking Drupal. Am I remembering right?
Resources Guests Chris Weber - nerdery.com - cosmicdreams Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Mark Casias - kanopi.com - markie MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - @mandclu
Type Tray - Brief description:
- Have you ever wanted to present a better, more organized version of the Content Add page, on a Drupal site with a large number of Content Types? There’s a module for that
- Brief history
- How old: created in Mar 2021
- Versions available
- Maintainership
- Actively maintained, latest release <3 mo ago
- Number of open issues:
- 3, only 3 of which are bugs (2 have patches)
- Test coverage? Y
- Usage stats:
- Maintainer(s):
- Created by marcoscano, along with a couple of co-maintainers, all of Lullabot
- Module features and usage
- Allows a site builder to categorize the content types and present them in a list or grid view
- Each content type can be a assigned a thumbnail and/or icon, to give content creators a visual idea of the options available to them, in addition to an extended description field
- Also an ability to assign a “weight” to each content type, to control the order in which it will display, within its category
- Also a Gin Type Tray module available to the Type tray look better when used with the Gin admin theme
- Listeners may remember our discussion of the Schema.org Blueprints module back in episode. That project includes a schemadotorg_type_tray module to provide its own Type Tray integration
Direct download: td-420-libsyn.mp3
Category: general
-- posted at: 2:00pm EDT
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Mon, 9 October 2023
Today we are talking about Drupal 7 EOL, Backdrop CMS, and Upgrade strategy from Drupal 7 with guests Jen Lampton & Laryn Kragt Bakker. We’ll also cover Acquia Migrate: Accelerate as our module of the week. For show notes visit:
www.talkingDrupal.com/419 Topics - When is Drupal 7 EoL
- If someone is on Drupal 7 what are their options
- If someone does not have the resources to upgrade to Drupal 10 what can they do
- Can someone stay on Drupal 7 after EoL
- What is Backdrop CMS
- Listener question - James: Some people have mentioned that Backdrop has changed significantly since forking, does this affect upgrading from drupal 7
- Listener question - James: Will there be another fork
- How can Backdrop help people get off of Drupal 7
- Tell us a bit about Backdrop’s annual online event
- Is Backdrop negatively affecting Drupal 10 adoption
- How does someone get involved with Backdrop
- What are some big features on the Backdrop roadmap
Resources Guests Laryn Kragt Bakker - atendesigngroup.com - laryn Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Jen Lampton - jenlampton.com - jenlampton MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - @mandclu
Acquia Migrate: Accelerate - Brief description:
- Have you ever wanted to add a layer of automation to Drupal’s migrate API, to simplify the process of migrating content and site architecture from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9? There’s a module for that.
- Brief history
- How old: created in July 2020 by Aaron Winborn-award winner webchick
- Versions available:
- 1.8.0 release which works with Drupal 9
- Maintainership
- Actively maintained - latest release, its first as open source, was in the last week
- Number of open issues:
- 3 issues, none of which are bugs, and all labeled as fixed
- Usage stats:
- Maintainer(s):
- Current release by Wim Leers, a longtime Drupal contributor and core subsystem maintainer
- Module features and usage
- The goal of Migrate Accelerate is to make Drupal core’s migrate API something that can be used by less technical users to migrate a Drupal 7 site to a modern version of Drupal
- Relies on an Acquia CLI command to analyze your Drupal 7 site, so it can generate a composer.json file using an existing matrix of hundreds mappings from legacy modules to modern Drupal equivalents, including patches
- That composer file becomes the basis for your migrated site, into which it will begin to migrate your content architecture
- It provides a dashboard that lists out the various kinds of content found on the origin site, with an ability to control the order in which the migrations will be performed
- At any point it’s possible to see a live preview the content that’s been migrated, within the same UI
- There’s also a drush command to trigger the same process, which actually runs more efficiently but still allows for live preview
- If you want to get an estimate on how much of your Drupal 7 site can be migrated automatically, there is also a Flightpath report you can generate (using a drush command) which is an HTML file that summarizes how much of your Drupal 7 site can be migrated automatically
- Migrate Accelerate used to be available only to Acquia customers and partners, but with this new release anyone in the community can use it to help them migrate their Drupal 7 site forward
Direct download: td-419-libsyn.mp3
Category: general
-- posted at: 2:20pm EDT
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Mon, 2 October 2023
Today we are talking about Inclusive Hiring Practices, Disability Employment Awareness Month, and tips to improve your hiring practices with our guest Donna Bungard. We’ll also cover Organigrams as our module of the week. For show notes visit:
www.talkingDrupal.com/418 Topics - When is National Disability Awareness Month
- What is the definition of Inclusive in this context
- Why are inclusive hiring practices important
- Have organizations been doing well with this
- What is disclosure and how can it impact people
- What can organizations do to be more inclusive
- What tools can be used to improve hiring practices
- Whose responsibility is it to address issues
- Any closing thoughts
Resources National Disability Employment Awareness Month
Snow shovel cartoon
Curb-cut effect Race after technology
Center for accessible technology
Apple assistive tech Guests Donna Bungard - @dbungard Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Jen Lampton - jenlampton.com - jenlampton MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - @mandclu
Organigrams - Brief description:
- Have you ever needed a way to define and display an org chart on your Drupal website? There’s a module for that.
- Brief history
- How old: created in Apr 2016 by PatrickScheffer
- Versions available: 7.x-1.3, 8.x-1.3, and 8.x-2.3 versions, the last two of which can be used with Drupal 8, 9, and 10
- Maintainership
- Number of open issues:
- 2 issues, neither are bugs
- Usage stats:
- Module features and usage
- The module works by extending core’s taxonomy hierarchy management
- You can organize who reports to who with a simple drag-and-drop, the same as any taxonomy hierarchy. For anyone who hasn’t used those, it would be basically the same as managing a menu structure
- Once created, an organigram can be viewed as a dedicated page, a block, and a token
- The 2.x branch uses Flexbox to achieve a CSS-only presentation that removes the need for any Javascript
- Appears to have been built to serve the needs of the Dutch House of Representatives
- I haven’t tested it, but I suspect that for a site with a very large organigram they need to build, tools like Client Side Hierarchical Select, built to make managing large taxonomies easier, are likely to work with Organigrams too
Direct download: td-418-libsyn.mp3
Category: general
-- posted at: 2:00pm EDT
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